Re: What and Why?
This is my first boat. It is a 2002 Key West 1900 CC with a 2002 Mercury 115hp outboard motor.
Why?
I have grown up almost entirely on the coast. I've wanted a boat my whole life. I recently got married and moved from Charleston to Beaufort when someone told me that when you live in this town you either need to own a boat, or know someone who owns a boat, or your weekends will all be booring. One month later, I had a boat. My wife had been poking around craigslist and saw a carolina skiff for about $5k and joked about getting it (this is weeks after the marriage), and I said not to joke, because if she's not careful I WILL find a boat.
I wanted a center console for fishing, but also for all the open space it provides and the simplicity of it. It is also very easy to clean. I went with the Key West because 1) it fit the budget and 2) on the recommendation of her father, who has a 17ft CC Key West. It has much higher gunwales than the bay boats everyone has around here, which we wanted, and it has about a 6 inch draft which is nice in the shallows but it can still handle fairly rougher seas. We did look at new boats as well, but I felt better about banging up my first $7500 boat than I did about a $30,000 boat, so we went with what you see above. So far I've had half a summer on it, so I'm still learning and finding things to fix with it, but also loving every minute.
The trim motor could go at any time, but I knew that going into it. I've had to replace the starter solenoid and have the navigation lights jury rigged to work right. I found out in december that the bilge pump was never hooked up, my cabin lights that I just replaced are not getting any power, and lo and behold the live well pump that worked when I bought it has ceased to do so. I replaced the wheels/bearings/tires on the trailer, the front wheel/stand, and need to work on the lights. So obviously it still needs work.
But it floats, and the engine runs, and the accessories are still getting power to my fish/depth finder and new VHF radio, so I still have fun.
When its time to look for a new boat, we've been talking about something with a cuddy cabin for naps, and certainly with a head. But we could always just get a bigger CC as far as I'm concerned
